Japan Earthquake Among World's Most Expensive Catastrophes

With Japan facing a mounting economic crisis in the wake of Friday's magnitude-8.9 earthquake and deadly tsunami, global insurers are already calling the temblor the world's "most costliest" catastrophe.

As Reuters is reporting, the overall cost of the multiple disasters exceeded $170 billion on Monday, well above 2005's Hurricane Katrina (estimated at $81 billion) and last summer's Pakistan floods ($43 billion). There are still questions about how the ongoing nuclear accident at the Fukushima reactors will continue to affect losses.

View the seven most expensive global disasters in recent history, as reported by the Guardian, below:

World's Most Expensive Disasters

World's Most Expensive Disasters

1

of

7

Japanese Earthquake And Tsunami, 2011

The devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami is expected to be the most expensive disaster in modern history. As Reuters reports, estimates of the overall cost of the multiple disasters exceeded $170 billion on Monday, and there are still questions about how the ongoing nuclear accident at the Fukushima reactors will affect losses.